Nottingham Forest’s recent run of six league defeats in seven games has been the stuff of nightmares - and Reading, who saw off Rotherham United 1-0 last weekend, piled further misery on beleaguered boss Philippe Montanier.

And the goalscorers - both former players at the City Ground - will only have rubbed salt in the wounds of those who had made the trip down from the Midlands.

McCleary opened the scoring, slotting home his fourth of the season after just 10 minutes - and Gunter put the gloss on the victory with a rare goal after the interval, only his third since leaving Forest in 2012.

The win moves Reading up to fifth place in the Championship ahead of next Saturday’s trip to Wigan Athletic.

First half

After a good start from the visitors that saw Armand Traore cause some problems down the left, Royals broke the deadlock with their first real attack after 10 minutes.

John Swift worked himself some space 25 yards from goal and unleashed a trademark strike from distance which Forest keeper Vladimir Stojkovic failed to gather.

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Second half

Forest started the second half brightly and had a golden chance to level things up when Lichaj got in down the right, but he dragged his shot wide of goal.

And it proved to be a costly miss as Royals went up the pitch and doubled their lead soon after, through the unlikeliest of scorers.

McCleary worked the ball into the area and, after a fortunate ricochet, it broke for Gunter who expertly fired past Stojkovic into the far corner on 62 minutes.

Chris Gunter blasts the ball home

It was only the former Forest man’s third goal for the club, his first in the league, and it put the hosts firmly in control.

And they held on comfortably for the win, although they did survive a nervy moment when the visitors were initially awarded a penalty for a trip by Liam Moore on Henri Lansbury, only for the referee to overturn his decision in favour of a free-kick after consulting with his assistant.

Main man

Ali Al-Habsi : Once again the Reading keeper was in fine form.

He made some excellent stops, with his save to keep out Eric Lichaj’s long range effort just before half time the pick of the bunch.